THUNDER BAY – Yogi Berra once famously said, “It ain’t over ‘til it’s over.”
Tuesday night’s Northwoods League contest between the Thunder Bay Border Cats and Eau Claire Express may have proven the hall-of-fame backstop wrong.
The host Border Cats erupted for 10 runs in the first inning, no-hit the Express into the sixth and rolled over their opponent 20-5.
Hayden Stringfellow delivered the key blow of the opening frame, his grand slam clearing the bases, doubling Thunder Bay’s lead to 8-0 at the time.
The blast, followed by a Corey Morro single, chased Eau Claire starter Conner Williar from the contest before he could record an out, pounded for eight runs on six hits and two walks.
To add insult to injury, Jordan Bach added a two-run blast off of reliever Ben Llewellyn, who finally managed to end the inning, striking out Jeremy Sheffield, the 13th batter to come to the plate.
Bach and Sheffield added back-to-back run-scoring doubles in an inning that saw the Border Cats first nine batter reach base before Kael Babin, who opened the first reaching first on a dropped third strike, popped out to second.
Manny Alberto smacked his second homerun of the season on the first pitch of the second inning and Morro singled in Trey Fikes and Trae Cassidy to make it 13-0 Cats through two.
The bats kept going in the fourth.
Stringfellow was hit by a pitch, Morro doubled, a wild pitch allowed one run to score, followed by a Babin RBI single that made it 15-0.
Meanwhile, Thunder Bay starter Matt Sargent was busy tossing a gem.
Sargent went three innings, not allowing a hit, walking two and striking out one. Jackson Irwin took over and got through two more innings of hitless ball, before Marcelino Alonso singled with one out in the sixth to break up the no-hit bid.
Alonso later scored on Jake Busson’s double to right, ending the Cats shutout bid. The Express added one more run in the sixth and peppered Grant Faris for two more in the seventh.
Alberto rounded out Thunder Bay’s attack in the eighth, doubling in a pair with one out and Bridger Hamilton on the mound for Eau Claire.
Every single starter had at least one hit for Thunder Bay, who got three-hit efforts out of Bach and Morrowe. Alberto was 2-for-5 with a home run, double and four RBI.
Irwin grabbed the win to even his record at 1-1. Williar took the loss and dropped to 0-1.
The Cats (8-7), who remain four-and-a-half games back in the Great Plains East, despite winning two in a row, have an off-day on Wednesday and will host the St. Cloud Rox (11-3) on Thursday at Port Arthur Stadium.
Attendance was 521.
